I think the title is pretty self-explanatory. When Apple finally released iTunes for Windows, I was very excited to buy MP3s for 99c each! With Napster effectively destroyed, I was thrilled to be released from the tyranny of $15 CDs. In everyone's minds, 99c each was almost as good as free. I went on a spending spree, buying songs I had never owned on CD or vinyl, songs from movies and TV shows, and songs generally too obscure to find before. Songs I bought on iTunes are in
Bold:
- The Bar-Kays - Soul Finger (as heard in the 1980s comedy Spies Like Us)
- The Pointer Sisters - Automatic
- Philip Bailey & Phil Collins - Easy Lover (I always loved singing along with the harmonies in this song, but it only appeared on Philip Bailey's solo LP Chinese Wall, and I wasn't about to buy a whole album for this one track. Long-story-short: this song is what 99c downloads were meant for!
- Hall & Oates - Private Eyes
- The Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes
- Prince - When You Were Mine (later covered by Cyndi Lauper)
- Wilco - I'm A Wheel
- The Rolling Stones - Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Used to great effect in the movie Goodfellas.)
- Jet - Get What You Need (obviously owes a debt to #8 above)
- The Isley Brothers - This Old Heart of Mine (used to great effect in an episode of Moonlighting.)
- R.E.M. - Harborcoat
- Guster - Amsterdam (Live in Portland, ME December 2003. Emily and I saw Guster at this same theater the previous year.)
- Paul McCartney & Wings - Call me Back Again
- Ray Charles - Half As Much
- Trey Anastasio - Alive Again
- Los Lobos - I Got Loaded (used in Bull Durham, when they turn on the field sprinklers and go on a drunken escapade.)
- Tommy McCook & The Skatalites - Goldfinger (a ska song about the movie)
- Crystal Waters - Come On Down (A dance track whose chorus is based on the closing credits theme to The Price Is Right TV show. For a long time this track was missing from the Spotify and Tidal versions of this CD, but in 2024 I found it and put it back on the playlist.)
- Laura Branigan - Gloria (a big hit single right around the time I started listening to music.)
